Book review
Written by Justin Somper
Simon & Schuster paperback
Release date 2 March 2009

Twins Connor and Grace Tempest finally learn the truth of their heritage as a Vampirate alliance threatens the safety of the seas...

Justin Somper's inspired mixing of two popular genres – vampires and pirates, if you hadn't guessed! – continues with a novel that manages to combine a great deal of back story with some interesting new character developments.

In earlier novels, the Tempest twins ran away from their home after their father's death, and became separated. Connor joined a pirate crew, while Grace became involved with a Vampirate ship. This put them on opposing sides of what at the time was a cold war, which heats up in this instalment with the arrival of Lady Lola Lockwood, a 26th Century equivalent of Margaret Lockwood's character in The Wicked Lady. In a world where sea levels have risen sharply, control of the oceans is vital and the balance of power shifts considerably in this volume.

Somper expands his mythos with intriguing revelations about the twins' parentage. You're left guessing quite who did what to who and when for much of the book, with the revelation providing a useful weapon in the story's final confrontation between pirates and Vampirates. Paul Simpson

VERDICT: 7/10
A swashbuckling, enjoyable light read.